Astral Sea
“The Astral Sea Above is a former battlefield still ravaged by the cosmic conflict known as the Dawn War. The deities were the original inhabitants of the astral realm when the world was newly created by the primordials and the mortal races had yet to find their final forms. Along with shaping and refining the creation of the world, the gods had grand plans for a single realm that would link all their dominions together with an all-powerful astral connection known as the Lattice of Heaven. “When the gods intervened to prevent the primordials from destroying the world and starting a new creation, the primordials responded by invading the Plane Above. Gods died, dominions crumbled, and the incomplete Lattice of Heaven was shattered into fragments. The astral world that had nearly become a fantastic interlocked mesh of divine dominions blew apart into an infinite silver sea. Much later, when the gods had eked out a narrow victory in the Dawn War, only a few of the divine dominions that survived the devastation still functioned for their deities, hinting at the glory that died forever when the primordials destroyed the Lattice.”Heinsoo, R., A. Marmell, and E. S. De Bie. 2010. “Astral Adventuring.” In The Plane Above, 6. Wizards of the Coast. Erathis’ Mission “Of all the deities, Erathis felt the destruction of the Lattice of Heaven most keenly. Like Moradin (and to a lesser extent, Corellon), she had been integral to its creation. Unlike Moradin, Erathis hoped that the communication and immediate transportation the Lattice would have fostered might create a new type of community among the deities, turning what had resembled a widely scattered group of city-states into a single densely populated and integrated nation. As the god of civilization, Erathis understood that she would play a major role in an integrated heaven, even if other deities hadn’t fully realized the implications of the Lattice. “Now the Lattice is gone. Its remaining vestiges are fragments of their former glory, such as color veils around the dominions, color strands, and the so-called gambler strands that transport those who enter them to a seemingly random location, which was originally a fixed point on the Lattice. Looking at the world of mortals and seeing how monstrous tides of barbarism and chaos nearly outnumber the spheres of progress and civilization, Erathis has decided that the world cannot be reshaped until the Plane Above is rebuilt. She still supports her worshipers as they seek to hold back the tribes of ignorance and the hordes of destruction, but she no longer personally believes that her worshipers and others who believe in their cause will be able to remake the world until they remake the Lattice. “In Erathis’ mind, the original plan for a unified heaven is lost. Too many fragments have been destroyed or reconstituted in monstrous configurations. So she has designed a new plan to remake heaven, using pieces of the existing Lattice. Erathis’ Plan to Remake Heaven “First, to recreate a new Lattice of Heaven, Erathis must learn to create everything that can be created. She must learn, understand, and put to use the current laws of creation, so that the final laws of creation can be codified and improved. The exalted of Hestavar are engaged in a fever of invention and craftsmanship known as the Game of Making. All types of creation can be part of the Game of Making. Poetry, oratory, watercolor, tea ceremony, combat magic, invention, siege work, dance, creating new rituals, creating new life—all these forms of creation are of utmost importance to Erathis’ mission. The exalted of Erathis do not see how these disparate elements come together to build a vision that can restore the universe, but they trust their deity to see to that. In turn, Erathis encourages them to do their best, inviting all the exalted of Hestavar, not just her own, to participate in the Game.”Ibid. “Divine Dominions.” 61-62. References Category:Astral Sea (Imaginary place) Category:Planes of Existence (Imaginary place)